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One year since the Indonesia Central cloud region data center began operating, Microsoft today reaffirmed its commitment to supporting organizations in Indonesia in adopting artificial intelligence (AI) safely, in compliance with regulations, and with tangible impact. At Microsoft AI Summit Indonesia, attended by hundreds of business leaders, regulators, and industry partners, Microsoft showcased two concrete examples of this transformation, BNI Finance in the financial services sector and Universitas Terbuka in higher education, two strategic sectors that demand the highest standards of trust, security, and governance.
As AI adoption accelerates across sectors, trust, security, and regulatory compliance have becomeincreasingly critical. Microsoft ensures that all cloud and AI innovations delivered through the Indonesia Central cloud region are builtto meet in-country data residency requirements, while also enabling organizations to comply with applicable regulatory frameworks, including in the highly regulated financial services sector.
Dharma Simorangkir, President Director of Microsoft Indonesia, said: “In the Frontier AI era, trust is fundamental. We are committed to delivering cloud and AI technology that is not only advanced but also aligned with Indonesia’s regulatory landscape. With local infrastructure and world-class security capabilities, we want to ensure that every organization, including those in the financial services sector, can innovate without compromising compliance and governance.”
Vice Chairperson of the Board of Commissioners of the Financial Services Authority of the Republic of Indonesia, Hernawan Bekti Sasongko, also emphasized the importance of collaboration between regulators and industry in ensuring the responsible use of technology.
“We believe that the adoption of AI, cloud, and digital technology in the financial services sector must continue to be advanced responsibly, with a strong emphasis on robust governance, sound risk management, cybersecurity, and adequate consumer protection. We also believe that collaboration between regulators, technology providers, financial services institutions, academia, and Indonesia’s digital talent is a key driver in accelerating the nation’s digital financial transformation. AI, cloud, data analytics, and a range ofdigital solutions hold significant potential to enhance efficiency, strengthen supervision, promote inclusion, and deliver relevant and trusted financial services to the public.”
Microsoft has also updated the compliance and regulatory checklist from the Financial Services Authority (OJK) for the financial services industry. This update is intended to help banks, financing companies, insurance companies, and other financial services institutions meet compliance requirements as they undergo digital transformation.
BNI finance: Large-Scale Core System Migration Without Operational Disruption
Since its launch in May 2025, the Indonesia Central cloud region has become an important foundation for organizations in Indonesia to accelerate their digital and AI transformation. With AI-ready hyperscale cloud capabilities, in-country data residency, and enterprise-grade security and compliance, this platform supports the needs of highly regulated sectors, including financial services.
BNI finance is a strong example of how adopting Microsoft cloud and AI can deliver tangible impact within a strict regulatory framework. BNI finance migrated its core system to Microsoft Azure through the Indonesia Central cloud region to improve service reliability and ensure compliance with financial services sector regulations. The migration covered more than 200 terabytes of data and 100+ applications, and was successfully completed in under two months without disrupting business operations.
This implementation shows that AI-based innovation can move in line with high security and compliance standards, representing how organizations in Indonesia are beginning to enter a new phase, from experimentation to full-scale implementation.
Universitas Terbuka: National Scale, Responsible AI in Higher Education
In the higher education sector, Universitas Terbuka (UT) demonstrates how cloud and AI can expand access to education while maintaining academic integrity. As a publicuniversity with an open and distance learning system, UT serves more than 1.8 million registered students and 768,248 active students in Semester 1 of 2025, making it one of the largest higher education institutions in the region.
Collaborating with Microsoft since 2013, UT has leveraged Microsoft Azure, Azure OpenAI Service, and Microsoft Foundry to develop AI Tutor, a contextual learning assistant grounded in UT’s official course materials. To date, AI Tutor has been implemented in across 500 classes and used by more than 100,000 students, deliveringtangible impact through increased participation in online discussions and a faster assignment grading cycle, from several days to just one to two days.
President Director of Microsoft Indonesia, Dharma Simorangkir (right), presented a token of appreciation to Vice Chairperson of the Board of Commissioners of the Financial Services Authority of the Republic of Indonesia, Hernawan Bekti Sasongko (second from right), at Microsoft AI Summit Indonesia (13/5/2026).
A Foundation for a Safe and Sustainable AI Ecosystem
Microsoft AI Summit Indonesia also highlighted how the combination of local cloud infrastructure, integrated data and AI platforms, and productivity tools such as Microsoft 365 Copilot and GitHub Copilot forms an ecosystem that enables organizations to innovate end to end.
With a long-term investment of US$1.7 billion in Indonesia through 2028, Microsoft remains committed to supporting the development of a safe, inclusive, and sustainable AI ecosystem, from infrastructure to digital talent development.
“Indonesia has all the elements to become the next frontier in AI — scale, talent, and digital transformation momentum. Our focus is to ensure that this transformation is built on a strong foundation of trust, so innovation can move in line with security and compliance,” Dharma concluded.
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President Director of Microsoft Indonesia, Dharma Simorangkir (right), presented a token of appreciation to Vice Chairperson of the Board of Commissioners of the Financial Services Authority of the Republic of Indonesia, Hernawan Bekti Sasongko (second from right), at Microsoft AI Summit Indonesia (13/5/2026).